CPD Occasional Paper Series

POVERTY REDUCTION IN BANGLADESH:

ABSENCE OF A NATIONAL FRAMEWORK,
AN ABUNDANCE OF DONORS’ STRATEGIES

Paper 4
Debapriya Bhattacharya
Rashed A M Titumir

Price Tk 45.00
______________________________________________________________________
Centre for Policy Dialogue
House No 40/C, Road No 11, Dhanmondi R/A
Mailing Address: GPO Box 2129, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh
Tel: 8124770; Fax: 8130951; E-mail: cpd@bdonline.com
Website: www.cpd-bangladesh.org
June, 2000
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), established in 1993, is an innovative initiative to
promote an ongoing process of dialogue between the principal partners in the decision
making and implementing process. The dialogues are designed to address important policy
issues and to seek constructive solutions to these problems. The Centre has already
organised a series of such major dialogues at local, regional and national levels. These
dialogues have brought together ministers, opposition front benchers, MPs, business leaders,
NGOs, donors, professionals and other functional groups in civil society within a non-
confrontational environment to promote focused discussions. The expectation of the CPD is
to create a national policy consciousness where members of civil society will be made aware
of critical policy issues affecting their lives and will come together in support of particular
policy agendas which they feel are conducive to the well being of the country. The CPD has
also organised a number of South Asian bilateral and regional dialogues as well as some
international dialogues.

In support of the dialogue process the Centre is engaged in research programmes which are both
serviced by and are intended to serve as inputs for particular dialogues organised by the Centre
throughout the year. Some of the major research programmes of CPD include The Independent
Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD), Governance and Development, Population and
Sustainable Development, Trade Policy Analysis and Multilateral Trading System and
Leadership Programme for the Youth. The CPD also carries out periodic public perception
surveys on policy issues and developmental concerns.

Dissemination of information and knowledge on critical developmental issues continues

to remain an important component of CPD’s activities. Pursuant to this CPD maintains an
active publication programme, both in Bangla and in English. As part of its dissemination
programme, CPD has decided to bring out CPD Occasional Paper Series on a regular
basis. Dialogue background papers, investigative reports and results of perception
surveys which relate to issues of high public interest will be published under its cover.
The Occasional Paper Series will also include draft research papers and reports which
may be subsequently published by the CPD.

The present paper published under the CPD Occasional Paper Series is entitled Poverty
Reduction in Bangladesh: Absence of a National Framework, An Abundance of
Donors’ Strategies has been prepared by Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Executive
Director, CPD and Rashed A M Titumir, Fellow, CPD. The paper greatly benefitted from
extensive comments provided by Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, CPD. The report
was presented at the national dialogue organised by the Centre in collaboration with the
Development for International Development (DFID), UK on the theme of Poverty
Alleviation Strategy: National Priorities and Donors’ Perspectives held on April 1, 2000.

Assistant Editor: Ayesha Banu, Coordinator (Dialogue & Communication), CPD

Series Editor: Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Executive Director, CPD
CPD Occasional Paper Series 4

I. POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES: NATIONAL PRIORITIES AND

DONORS’ PERSPECTIVES

A. Constitutional Guidelines for Formulation of Bangladesh’s Development

Strategy

The Constitution of Bangladesh provides clear directives for formulating the country’s
development goals, objectives and strategies. Fundamental Principles of the State Policy,
as enshrined in the Constitution, vest on the state the responsibility of meeting basic
needs of the people through (a) planned economic growth, (b) constant increase of
productive forces; and (c) a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of
living of the people.

Accordingly, the Constitution states that the above strategic guideline would be pursued
with a view to securing to its citizens:
(a) the provision of the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter,
education and medical care;
(b) the right of work, that is the right to guaranteed employment at a reasonable
wage having regard to the quantity of work;
(c) the right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure; and
(d) the right to social security, that is to say, to public assistance in cases of
undeserved wants arising from unemployment, illness, or disablement; or,
suffered by widows or orphans, or in old age, or in other such cases.

Bangladesh’s Constitutional guidelines are rooted in a framework aimed at raising the

quality of life - a secured living that is foreseeable and safe, with access to productive
resources, quality health and education – through a balanced and equitable growth.

B. Absence of a National Framework

Poverty alleviation is the overarching goal of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB). The
Fifth Five Year Plan (FFYP) states GOB’s commitment to alleviation of poverty through
accelerated economic growth. It is envisaged that speeding up of economic growth will
bring about noticeable improvement in the living standard of people by raising their
income and meeting their basic needs. Official documents 1 of government and its
development partners indicate the following generic consensus:
(a) Poverty alleviation should be the ‘overarching goal’ of both national policy as
well as the focal point of all aid policy.
(b) Poverty is a strategic cross-cutting concept, and not just a issue of
measurement, recognising the multidimensional nature poverty thus calls for a
more holistic approach in designing anti-poverty strategies.
(c) Poverty has been caused and reinforced by a number of factors: economic,
political, historical, institutional, social, cultural, internal and external.

1
Annex – 1 contains a list of documents that has been consulted for preparing the present paper.

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The concern with poverty is not a new theme and has always been an over-riding felt
need of the people at large, but the project-oriented approach followed by successive
governments has always in effect been donor-driven supply-led and thus potentially
unsustainable.

Bangladesh has never had a homegrown holistic dynamic strategic framework to combat
poverty nor had a clearly articulated operational approach been developed to address the
issue. Rather agendas for poverty alleviation had remained largely donor driven. As a
result what has served as a strategy for poverty alleviation in Bangladesh has been like
more than aggregation of a large number of various donor-funded micro projects
supplemented by some discrete domestically funded programmes.

How the GOB agenda on poverty reduction has been operationalised may be tracked
from the Finance Minister’s speech made on 28 March 2000 at a consultative meeting
with the civil society on the theme related to GOB’s poverty alleviation strategies. In the
meeting he reiterated that poverty alleviation was the ‘overarching’ goal of the GOB and
the present government was committed to creating an enabling environment for
economic, social and political empowerment of the poor through: (a) enhancing pro-poor
growth (low inflation) (b) reorientation of public expenditure towards social sectors
(health and education) and physical infrastructure (roads) and; (c) broadening safety net
programmes (microcredit, GOB initiatives).

The above indicative strategy of the GOB is operationalised through some micro
programmes spell out in Table-1 and changes in public expenditure priorities. However,
the programme falls short of an overarching strategy for poverty alleviation because it
remains unrelated as overall target for poverty alleviation or a macroeconomic design
which links policies, performances and expenditures to specific outcomes with a given
timeframe.

There is, thus, a need for conceptualising and developing a holistic policy framework to
strategically formulate policies, sequence intervention-instruments and implement
projects and reforms to realise specific goals for poverty alleviation with a time bound
framework. Therefore a strategy for poverty eradication demands:
⇒ a multi-pronged- interventions;
⇒ a pro-active role of the state and public policy;
⇒ a realignment of donors’ country programming and support to ensure that
their priorities and assistance feed into the partner (recipient) government’s
overall strategy and medium-term expenditure plans.

A comprehensive and flexible poverty reduction framework is such which can be

adjusted to varied spatial, gender and income groups of the country disposed to provide a
stable, equitable, and sustainable development process, devoid of mal-governance and
involving the participation of all streams of society in the design and benefit of such an
agenda.

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Table 1: Contrasting Fifth Five Year Plan Objectives with Operational Feature of the GOB
Objectives of the FFYP Operational feature Observation
Alleviation of poverty through accelerated growth The growth in agriculture accelerated GDP growth has increased
(7 percent per annum). to 4.3 percent per annum during 1996- but not as high to make a
99, while the GDP growth averaged 5.5 dent on income poverty
percent during the period. situation.
Generation of substantial employment and Rural infrastructure programmes No visible shift in the
increased productivity through an optimal choice stated direction in the
of traditional labour intensive and new capital labour market.
intensive technologies.
Improvement in the quality of life of the rural Micro-credit programmes, Moderate increase in the
population through mobilisation of the rural Food assisted programmes, quality of life.
masses and channeling of increased volume of Broader NGO participation.
investible resources
Transformation of the rural socio-economic Inequality on the rise.
structure into a more equitable, just and productive
one.
Attainment of food production beyond the self The growth in agriculture accelerated. Food availability has
sufficiency level in the shortest possible time. increased.
Human resources development with emphasis on Public expenditure on education Despite increased
compulsory primary education and vocational increased nearly four-fold from Tk 1.97 allocation per capita
training. billion to Tk 7.41 billion during 1991- spending is still low,
1999 and health expenditure rose from restraining to access to
Tk 2.94 billion to Tk 5.95 billion in that quality education and
period. health care.
Improved service delivery.
Development of necessary infrastructure, utilities The Rural Maintenance Programmes. Bureaucratic bottlenecks
and other services needed to promote growth, and lack of proper
particularly in the private sector and to the planning is not
development of rural infrastructure. contributing to the cause.
Development of industries essentially based on No public investment.
comparative advantage of the country.
Development of neglected areas like the North- Peace treaty was signed,
west region, Chittagong Hill Tracts and coastal creating an enabling
areas. regime.
Achievement of a lower population growth rate Changing composition of public Population growth,
(1.32 per cent), coupled with provision of expenditure favouring social sector. fertility and child
necessary health care and improved nutrition of mortality, etc have fallen,
mother and child. but remain high in
comparative terms.
Strengthening of the country's scientific and
technological base with emphasis on research and
development of new generation technologies.
Protection and preservation of environment by
adequate regulatory regimes and effective
institutions.
Closing the gender gap, giving priority to women's Girls’ education programme
education, training and employment and special
support for education of the girl children.
Establishment of social justice through equitable Boyoska Bhata (Old Age Pension)
distribution of income, resources and opportunities, Allowances for Distressed Women
and creation of effective safety nets for the socially programme
and economically disadvantaged sections of the Asrayon Project (Shelter for the

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Objectives of the FFYP Operational feature Observation

population and by strengthening the law and order Homeless)
and the rule of law. Grihayan Tahbil (Housing Fund)
Putting in place effective local government Election to Union Parishads held. No effective structure yet
institutions, at the union, thana and zilla levels, and for design, formulation
vesting on them the power and responsibilities for and implementation of
design, formulation and implementation of local local development
level development programmes and projects, with programmes.
active participation of people belonging to all strata
of the rural society as well as through effective co- No elected Thana and
operation between the local government Zilla Parishad.
institutions and non-government organisations.

C. Abundance of Donors’ Strategies

Bangladesh has been exposed to a plethora of advice and assistance from its development
partners for the purpose of alleviating poverty. The donors working in Bangladesh, however, have
tended to follow diverse models in addressing the issue of poverty. The dominant model followed
by multilateral agencies and central European bilateral partners– are rooted in the ‘neo-liberal
market framework’. Such a model, originating in from specific set of philosophical assumptions,
carries its in-built rigidities, emanating from strong assumptions. This model does not pay much
attention to such issues as power relations, the command over the productive assets or the
problems associated with empowerment of poor.

The World Bank has been playing the lead role amongst the donors in shaping Bangladesh’s
development strategies. The current policy regime is built upon the Bank sponsored structural
adjustment reforms (SAR) or “Washington Consensus,” which is grounded in the ‘neo-liberal
market framework’. In contrast the Nordic countries, in association with their partners in the
LMG group have tended to place more emphasis on targeting policy advice towards poverty
alleviation. The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has recommended of a
policy mix of macroeconomic stability, structural reforms and social stability for countries
moving towards higher path of sustainable growth.

Despite divergences in donor perspectives on conceptualising poverty and the subsequent choice
of programmatic areas for official development assistance, there is a strong convergence in recent
years in various country assistance strategies of the donors towards poverty alleviation. Most of
the cooperation agencies, however, do not state any clearly articulated operational approach
towards poverty reduction, their Country Assistance Strategies have instead identified a spectrum
of programmatic areas some of which cover poverty reduction.

This, in effect, may lead to a crowding out of the principal objective of poverty alleviation. The
divergent priorities amongst the various aid agencies and indeed within the agencies may lead to
duplication as well as waste in the design of projects which may not only deviate from national
priorities but may also lead to an element of incoherence amongst the various aid agencies.

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II. DEFINITION AND CONCEPTS ON POVERTY

A.1 Commonalties amongst Donors

There appears to be a growing consensus among the co-operation agencies on perceiving
poverty as a multi-dimensional concept. Despite differences in phraseology, most donors,
in common terms, conceive of poverty resulting from lack of human, physical and
financial capabilities to sustain livelihoods. Accordingly, the manifestation of poverty is
reduced or lack of access to material, economic, social, political or cultural resources
needed to satisfy basic needs.

The female-headed households perceived to be both below and close to the consumption
poverty line, they suffer on average more severe poverty, and obtain less than their share
of household consumption.

A.2 Divergent Emphases amongst Donors

Most of the donors do not furnish any clearly articulated operational element arising out
of their assessment of multidimensionality of poverty. Table below shows how donors
are diverse in emphases in their formulations on poverty.
OECD World Bank DFID UNDP
Global Global Bangladesh Global
Six elements are Poverty is multi- A more detailed Human poverty means
necessary to be covered dimensional, extending understanding of denial of most basic
in a multidimensional from poverty incorporate opportunities and
definition of poverty: ♦ low levels of health ♦ illiteracy, choices –
• private and lack of ♦ lack of access to ♦ to lead a long,
consumption (PC); education, resources, healthy, creative
• individual and ♦ to other ‘non- ♦ social deprivation life; and
household assets; material’ and vulnerability to ♦ to enjoy a decent
• security, in respect dimensions of well- disasters, sickness standard of
to risks, shocks and being, including and other external ƒ living,
violence; ƒ gender gaps, shocks. ƒ freedom,
• social consumption ƒ insecurity, ƒ dignity,
(including use of ƒ powerlessness ƒ self-respect and
common-pool and the respect of
resources and ƒ social others.
publicly-provided exclusion.
services);
• empowerment, or
attainment of
minimal social-
participation, voice
and dignity; and
free time.

As regards nature and pattern of poverty Norwegian aid agency maintains that poverty is
a complex issue and efforts for reduction requires programmes which can be tailored to
the contextual realities of individual countries. Canadian agency, CIDA observes that
poverty can lead to serious global problems, such as environmental degradation, political
and economic instability, and large-scale migration of people in search of a better life.

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British aid agency, DFID in its strategic paper also shares the view and substantiate its
argument by saying that the recent Asian financial crisis and the world economic slow-
down that followed has had an impact, particularly over the past three years. It also
identifies other threats such as conflict, AIDS and natural disasters.

OECD in its guideline on poverty assistance strategies for its members says that
“functional groups” that are known to experience poverty or vulnerability on several
dimensions are a more suitable focus for policy thinking than poverty-line categories.

B. Contrasting with the Strategies of the GOB spelt out in the FFYP

The following table presents a contrasting picture, containing commonalties between

GOB and donors and unadressed national concerns.
Commonalties in GOB/Donor Position Unadressed National Concerns

Definition of Poverty Causes of Poverty

¾ In broader sense, poverty refers to forms of
economic, social and psychological deprivation
occurring among people lacking sufficient
ownership, control or access to resources for
minimum required level of living.
Pace of Reduction
¾ Bangladesh has registered some progress, with the
incidence of poverty falling; albeit this has been
only marginal and slow.
Inequality
¾ The uneven distribution of income has increased,
particularly since 1991-92. The gap in rural-urban
living standards has increased.
¾ Rising inequality within the rural and urban
sectors also accounts for a large share of rising
national inequality.
¾ There are large differences in poverty by
education, land ownership, occupation, and
demographics.
¾ Female-headed households are seen to be poorer
in rural areas, and women have less education and
employment.
¾ The major causes of poverty are low economic
growth, inequitable distribution of income and
productive assets, unemployment and under-
employment, high population growth, low human
resource development and limited access to public
services.
Nature and Pattern of Poverty
¾ The progress recorded by income-measure of
poverty has not been equally matched by
improvement in several crucial dimensions of
poverty such as crisis-coping capacity, improved
access to quality health care, etc. Average annual
income erosion in rural households arising out of
various crises- constitutes about 16 per cent of its
income; for the extreme poor, the corresponding
figure is as high as 27 per cent.
¾ Lack of adequate risk-insurance mechanism
coupled with limited public health care underlies a
tendency for income erosion amongst the poor.
Measurement of Poverty
¾ Disagreements persist for many years about the
extent and trend of poverty because of
methodological differences on measurement.

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III. GUIDING PRINCIPLES ADOPTED BY DIFFERENT AGENCIES FOR

REDUCTION OF POVERTY

A.1 Commonalties amongst Donors

Since there is a general understanding that poverty is a complex phenomenon, different
mainstream paradigmatic assumptions appear to guide the official discourse and response
to in different countries. These approaches are furnished below:
♦ Pro-poor growth reduces poverty by promoting rapid, job-creating economic growth
and interventions that directly assist the poor.
♦ Sustainable livelihood emphasises on designing intervention strategy on the basis of
specific circumstances of actual poor rather than making prior assumption based on
sectoralised thinking.
♦ Empowerment captures a set of minimal conditions for well being and social
belonging which influences as well as access to work and resources in a rights-based
framework. It influences public perceptions of the poorest and their place in the
community.
♦ Human development enlarges the process of choice and opportunities most basic to
human development – to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent
standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-respect and the respect of others.
♦ Human security addresses the sources of risk that affect poor people through breaking
out of the increasingly artificial separation between conflict resolution, post-conflict
reconstruction, natural disaster preparedness and relief, and rights-based governance
work and addresses the functioning of safety-net arrangements.
♦ Most of the country assistance strategies can boast of underlining the importance of
phrases such as ‘investing in people’, building ‘human capital’, ‘promotion of
security’, ‘growth with equity.’

A.2 Observation on Donors’ Emphases

Notwithstanding the lack of generalised understanding on the principles guiding the

poverty reduction strategies adopted by the donor agencies, the dominant view amongst
the official donors is that economic growth is a necessary condition for reducing poverty.
However the point of departure in the current donor discourse centres around elevation of
poverty eradication to the primary concern of donors and not as a derived outcome of
pro-growth strategies.

The overarching importance placed on poverty reduction tends to be crowd out in

operational programmes of many donors by a number of other objectives, despite the fact
that policy documents and statements consistently convey poverty reduction as the
overarching objective. These range from support to economic growth to support to the
social service sector to democratic government and good governance, gender equality,
conflict resolution and peace, and environmental concerns.

In spite of a broader consensus on economic growth as a necessary condition for poverty

reduction, there is a view, mostly nurtured by Nordics that growth does not automatically

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lead to a reduced level of poverty. Their Parliaments see poverty reduction as conditional
upon a more equitable distribution of income and employment opportunities. On one
hand and institutional arrangements for the participation of the ‘majority’ (poor are the
majority in the developing countries) in the decision making processes, on the other.

These alternative perspectives underline the active role of governments and state
institutions for creating the necessary enabling environment for poverty reduction.
Donors’ Divergent Emphases
Agency Emphases
OECD Various causal assessments of multidimensionality of poverty lead to overlapping
strategic approaches, with the domination of a pro-poor growth strategy.
World Bank Reduction of poverty by promoting rapid, job-creating economic growth and
interventions that directly assist the poor.
DFID Global
Fast economic growth, at a rate substantially higher than population growth, primarily
driven by private sector activities is required for reduction of poverty.

Ensuring equity through improved access to health, education, markets and assets
which will enable the poor to contribute to economic growth and benefit from
increased national output.

The vulnerability of poor people to shocks needs to be reduced.

CIDA Reducing poverty needs focus on people’s capabilities to avoid, or limit, their
deprivation. Key aspects of these are:
¾ recognising and developing the potential of the poor;
¾ increasing their productive capacity
¾ reducing barriers limiting their participation in society;
¾ improving the social, economic and environmental conditions of the poor; and
their access to decision making.

The project interventions will emphasise institutional sustainability and financial self-
reliance, increasing the capacity of government and NGO’s to effectively deliver
quality basic needs services to the poor.

SDC
SDC gives the highest Importance to promote self-reliance, sustainable benefits and
empowerment of the poor to achieve a more just and democratic international peace
and societal order. It is of particular Importance in Bangladesh to valorise:
¾ gender awareness,
¾ preservation of environment, and
¾ economic viability.

SIDA The principle goal of Swedish development cooperation is to raise the quality of life of
poor people. The concept ‘quality of life’ includes people’s opportunities for making a
secured living in a manner that is foreseeable and safe, to be in good health and to have
access to education and other social services.
NORAD Norway follows a combined emphasis on investing in people through social sectors
and promoting a more balanced and equitable economic growth process, supplemented
with more directly targeted interventions and accentuation on democratic institutions,
empowerment and civil society. The Norwegian perspective underlines the basic role
of the government and state institutions for creating the necessary enabling
environment for poverty reduction.

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IV. STRATEGIC APPROACHES ADOPTED BY DIFFERENT AGENCIES FOR

REDUCTION OF POVERTY

A. Commonalties amongst Donor Agencies

In identifying a number of areas in terms of programmes, most of donors catalogue

macroeconomic instability, poor governance and institutional barriers as a major cause of the lack
of success in their poverty reduction programme. Accordingly, they converge on improving
macroeconomic management as a precondition for achieving rapid, sustainable economic growth.
In recent years this emphasis has shifted to improving governance which is seen as an essential
element in realising post macroeconomic reforms as well as poverty reduction.

The donor pledges to invest in areas such as education, health, nutrition and population for
promoting human development.

A.2 Divergent Emphases amongst Donors

Poverty reduction, as observed by OECD, has in recent time come into focus in Country Assistance
Strategies (CAS) and usually remains only one of several priorities. The OECD observes that the neo-
liberal focus of CAS has made it difficult to address poverty and poverty reduction in its own right. The
following table provides strategic priorities of different donors, illustrating divergent emphases:

Agency Emphases
World Bank The strategic priorities are:
• improving macroeconomic management
• promoting a competitive private sector as the engine of growth
• promoting better public sector management and improved public services for
the private sector and civil society;
• accelerating growth and rural development and strengthening the linkages
between agriculture and non agriculture development; and
• promoting faster and more equitable human development on the basis of a long-
term vision of education, health, nutrition and population
EC The EC’s areas of cooperation are:
• Increase income of poor people.
• Improve access to quality health services.
• Improve access to quality primary education.
• Vocational training.
• Encourage the empowerment of the poor, particularly women by supporting
gender equality, human rights and the rule of law to strengthen the role of civil
society.
• Support to the rehabilitation and development of the Chittagong Hill (CHT)
region in Bangladesh.
• Governance and institutions building.
DFID The long-term objective is to help Bangladesh achieve sustainable reductions in
poverty through a consistent and effective contribution to poverty elimination
• in partnership with other stakeholders, both Bangladeshi and external,
• both by direct interventions on poverty and
• by supporting more rapid economic growth.
CIDA The project interventions will emphasise on:
• institutional sustainability and financial self-reliance,
• increasing the capacity of government and NGO’s to effectively deliver quality
basis needs services.

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SDC SDC focuses on improving the conditions for increased productivity and economic
competitiveness as a prerequisite to sustained large-scale productive employment
generation, through
• human resources development (education, skills training),
• enhanced access to resources (capital/credit, technology) at reasonable cost. and
• opening-up of market opportunities by means of infrastructure development,
promotional activities, etc.

NORAD The Norwegian approach to poverty reduction has nine main policy elements:
• A developmental state, with an active role for the Government and static
institutions
• Investing in people, through (basic) education and (basic) health
• A balanced and equitable economic growth, with a managed mixed economy
• Targeted interventions and projects to supplement general Government policies
• Empowerment of the poor and an open, democratic and pluralistic society
• Equal participation, opportunities and rights for women
• Reforms in the international economic system and debt relief
• Protection of the environment and resource management for the benefit of the
poor
• Conflict resolution, conflict prevention and post-conflict reconciliation

B. Contrasting with Bangladesh’s Development Goals

The table below presents commonalties between donors and GOB on Bangladesh’s
development goals and unaddressed concerns.
Commonalties
¾ Provision of the basic necessities of life,
including food, clothing, shelter, education and
medical care;
¾ transformation in the rural areas through
promotion of an agricultural revolution,
provision of rural electrification, the
development of cottage and other industries,
and improvement of education and public
health;
¾ promotion of local government institutions and
mainstreaming of women
¾ establishment of a corruption free society;
¾ ensuring good governance, separation of the
judiciary from the executive organs of the state
and establishment of a pro-people public
service system to serve the people.
Unaddressed Concerns
¾ the right of work, that is the right to guaranteed
employment at a reasonable wage with respect
to the quantity of work;
¾ the right to reasonable rest, recreation and
leisure;
¾ the right to social security, i.e. providing
public assistance in cases of undeserved wants
arising from unemployment, illness, or
disablement; or, suffered by widows or
orphans, or in old age, or in other such cases.
¾ ensure equality of opportunity to, and adopt
effective measures to remove social and
economic inequality to ensure equitable
distribution of wealth and of opportunities in
order to attain a uniform level of economic
development.

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V. INSTRUMENTS/LEVERS DEPLOYED BY DIFFERENT CO-

OPERATION AGENCIES FOR REDUCTION OF POVERTY

A. Commonalties amongst donors

Most of agencies stress that macroeconomic stability, structural reforms and social
stability are required for countries to move to a higher path of sustainable growth. The
agencies suggest that poverty reduction strategy needs to integrate institutional, structural
and sectoral interventions into a consistent framework.

The multilateral agencies and central European agencies see a link between structural
adjustment that enhances growth and stabilises the economy and poverty reduction.

The cooperation agencies take a sector-wide approach to: (a) support the Government
and NGOs in providing quality primary education for poor children in rural areas and
support the development of institutional linkages between formal and non-formal primary
education systems, and (b) support modular and demand interventions in health and
population sector.

The agencies reiterate in their CAS to encourage empowerment of the poor, particularly
women and the participation of the disadvantaged in the development process by
promoting decentralized co-operation activities, and by supporting gender equality,
human rights and the rule of law to strengthen the role of civil society.

B. Contrasting with Poverty Reduction Objectives as outlined in the Fifth Plan

Commonalties Divergences

¾ Alleviation of poverty through accelerated ¾ Generation of substantial employment

economic growth (on an average 7 per cent per
annum) during the plan period to bring about a
noticeable improvement in the standard of
living of people by raising their level of income
and meeting their basic needs.
¾ Improvement in the quality of life of the rural
population through moblisation of the rural
masses and resources at their command as well
as channelling increased volume of invisible
resources to the rural economy for attainning an
accelerated growth in rural employment and
income.
¾ Human resources development with emphasis
on compulsory primary education and
vocational training and foundation laying of a
knowledge based society.
¾ Development of Chittagong Hill Tracts and
coastal areas.
¾ Achievement of a lower population growth
rate.(1.32 per cent), coupled with provision of
opportunities and increase in productivity
through an optimal choice of the traditional
labour intensive and new capital-intensive
technologies.
¾ Development of industries essentially based on
comparative advantage of the country.
¾ Transformation of the rural socio-economic
structure into a more equitable, just and
productive one and empowerment of the rural
poor through ensuring their increased access to
resources.
¾ Attainment of food production beyond the self-
sufficiency level in the shortest possible time
and of higher production of diversified high-
valued export goods.
¾ Strengthening of the country’s scientific and
technological base with emphasis on research
and development of new generation
technologies, including in areas such as
electronics and genetic engineering.

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necessary health care and improved nutrition of
mother and child.
¾ Closing the gender gap, giving priority to
women’s education, training and employment
and special support for education of the girl
child.
¾ Protection and preservation of environment by
putting in place adequate regulatory regimes
and effective institutions, keeping in view the
need for regeneration, recycling and optimum
exploitation of natural resources consistent with
sustainable development.

C. Observations on various instruments deployed by aid agencies for poverty

reduction from their documents

♦ Using policy leverage through disbursement conditionalities and associated pressure

is not seen as a good practice, particularly for a bilateral donor, when seeking to bring
about a better enabling environment.
♦ Sector programmes may tend to focus on the central ministries and thereby divert
attention from accountability mechanisms. One way of securing accountability and
transparency is to support devolution and delegation of decision-making authority.
Another is to facilitate the advocacy role of civil society organisations representing
the poor.
♦ Sector-wide approaches easily end up focusing exclusively on the sector in question
and synergies may accordingly be missed.
♦ Studies on the stated superior performance of NGOs provide a more complex picture
than what is often assumed. A major conclusion is that there is actually a lack of
reliable evidence on the poverty reduction impact of NGO development projects
because NGOs give little attention to monitoring and evaluation exercises.
♦ Area development approaches have been criticised for problems of sustainability.
♦ A number of weaknesses in project design and implementation often affect the
sustainability of projects:
⇒ The different aspects of sustainability (political, administrative, financial,
technological, environmental) must be worked into project design at an early
stage and as an over-arching concern.
⇒ The issue of sustainability is not a handing-over problem.
⇒ The relationship between exploratory (‘pilot’) projects and long-term
interventions must be carefully considered.

♦ Small-scale success does not necessarily guarantee similar results on a larger scale.
Scaling up must therefore be carefully considered to avoid expensive or complex
interventions, or interventions that are directly counter productive.
♦ At one stage participation and empowerment are considered dangerously radical and
destabilising, they are now quite uncontroversial in most development agencies. But
genuine participatory approaches are time consuming and in the projects with short
cycles there is always a temptation to short-circuit the process.

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VI. GOVERNANCE AND PROCESS ISSUES INVOLVED IN DESIGNING

COUNTRY ASSISTANCE STRATEGY BY THE CO-OPERATION
AGENCIES FOR POVERTY REDUCTION

A. Process followed or ascribed in the CAS documents to be followed in

programming of CAS

Agency Issues
CIDA
¾ The identification of constraints and opportunities common to a large number of
the poor in a group or country, as well as the selection of activities to reduce
poverty, must be done with the full participation of people, their organisations and
their governments.

¾ Programming at CIDA requires being consistent with the goal of poverty

reduction.

WB ¾ Co-location of work to the field, matrix management and improved

communication between Washington and Dhaka make possible continuous
dialogue with clients, quicker responses to their needs, more effective and
economical supervision and portfolio management, and better team work. The
presence of Bank and IFC directors in the field ensures greater awareness of the
country context for business decisions and enhances collaboration.
DFID ¾ More substantive and effective partnerships must be based on a good
understanding of Bangladeshi society and institutions, which is made difficult by
the turnover of UK based staff.

¾ The DFID develop better induction programmes, for example including stronger
encouragement to learn Bangla and spend time in Bangladeshi communities; will
undertaken training in cross-culture communication; and will increase the
proportion of Bangladesh staff, especially at higher administrative and
professional levels, in our team.

¾ In building partnerships, an important characteristics is to follow a long term

approach, maximum continuity, adopting an approach which is open to learning as
well as influencing and trying to understand the motivation and incentives of
partners.
NORAD
¾ The senior management’s explicit commitment to poverty reduction objectives
and clear communication to agency staff is required.

¾ Another and complementary aspect of mainstreaming of poverty reduction within

the agencies, concerns the creation of special units, focal points or working groups
for poverty reduction. Some are formal while others remain informal.

¾ It seems that the agency must have the ability to make effective use of specialised
skills-resources in a multi-disciplinary way.

SDC ¾ Constructive and equitable partnership is the starting point for sustainable
cooperation that strengthens accountability. The SDC works with partners who are
willing to cooperate in a sprit of responsibility, openness and efficiency, in order
to achieve common long-term aims.

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¾ With respect to the problem whether preference should be given to government or

private sector partners, more than ever, the selection of partners should not be
based on principles, but on pracatibility, evolution, time. No rule, but only a few
guiding ideas can be spelled out:
Partnership Criteria
⇒ Government should only become active where the private sector (business, civil
society) does not bring the desired results (subsidiarity)
⇒ The central government (and SDC) should resist the temptation to get involved in
production and to directly intervene at the micro-level in order to control and
dominate these networks. Rather it should endorse the role of facilitator, enabler
and regulator.
⇒ Control through the direct participants and target populations is more cost-
effective and efficient (for instance to avoid corruption and misuse of funds) than
top-down control, especially through the public administration.
⇒ In most of the cases, preference shall be given to multiple partnerships
(government/NGO/business/several donors) and broad-based cooperation systems
instead of working with single partnership, including a plurality of partners of all
walks of life and sectors.

B. Some Observations

♦ The CAS and the resulting programme of interventions – its process and content –
should be based on a good understanding of the country’s overall national strategy for
poverty reduction.
♦ Dialogue should center on ensuring that donor priorities and resources offered are
consistent with partner government’s overall strategy and medium-term expenditure
plans.
♦ The CAS process should itself be participatory and involve systematic consultations
with co-operation country authorities, private sectors and civil-society
representatives.
♦ The CAS should be genuinely strategic and be informed by the best available
knowledge of the poverty situation in the country, including the results of gender and
social analysis, and consideration of environment-poverty linkages.
♦ All cooperation agency strategies should be primarily focused on poverty-reduction
goals and be justified in that term.
♦ The challenge of a country assistance programming is how to proceed within a very
diverse country policy and governance situation.
♦ There is need for strengthening the poverty analysis, awareness and policy making at
the country level.
♦ Effective partnership requires a considerable investment of staff time, including
senior-level administrators, in order to develop trust and mutual understanding, as
well as identifying opportunities for pursuing pro-poor approaches.
♦ As a general rule accountability to domestic stakeholders, including National
Parliament or other elected legislative bodies, will be of critical importance. This will
ensure against gross misuse of public funds and in favour of public spending
priorities that reflect government’s poverty-reduction commitments.

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♦ A Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), is typically a rolling three-year

expenditure plan reflecting government policy priorities, costed plans for achieving
particular outcomes, and the total “resource envelope” considered consistent with
macro-economic stability, may be designed.
♦ Accountability needs to be mutual, and not to fall disproportionately on the country
government.

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VII. ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION FOR POVERTY REDUCTION

To ensure that the intended results for the Bangladesh programme are clearly understood,
those should be measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound and attributable to
interventions.

In evaluation, important elements are:

⇒ a professional, high quality and continuously updated poverty analysis, with
the possibility of promoting several studies and analyses which stimulate
debate and discussions;
⇒ an active policy-making by the Government for poverty reduction, including
both national policies, and regional policies, where relevant; and
⇒ a systematic monitoring system with agreed indicators and impact analysis.
This requires a consolidated effort by donors and the Government and other
development partners.

Studies consistently reveal that donor agencies’ ability to learn lessons from experience is
disappointing, and this applies even more with respect to poverty reduction. The key to
quality programme management is therefore interaction, putting the emphasis on being
connected with these movements. It is very helpful to “look beyond one’s own yard” to
learn from others’ experiences.

For effective monitoring of results and learning to take place, poverty reduction
objectives and linkages need to be made clear and explicit, and potential beneficiaries are
to be carefully identified at the outset.

In addition, institutional change is required both within agencies and co-operating

countries in order to achieve the systematic cooperation of gender analysis and social
analysis as an integral part of the monitoring and evaluation process.

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VIII. KEY QUESTIONS FOR THE DIALOGUE

⇒ Can the Fifth Five Year Plan (FFYP) agenda on poverty alleviation termed as
national agenda for poverty alleviation backed by the political authority of the GOB?

⇒ What are the operational links between the FFYP strategy and operational
programmes for poverty alleviation incorporated the ADP and articulated by the
Finance Minister?

⇒ Is there a convergence on concepts and strategies followed by the GOB and different
co-operation agencies on the issue of poverty? Do the donors have any clear
agreement on strategies and do they have any mechanism for coordinating their anti-
poverty strategies?

⇒ Are there coherent guiding principles between those adopted by different co-
operation agencies for reduction of poverty? How far do they capture that of the
country?

⇒ What are the commonalties and divergences on instruments/levers deployed by

different co-operation agencies for reduction of poverty?

⇒ What should be the point of departure in designing country assistance strategies by

the co-operation agencies for poverty reduction? Is there scope for donors coming
together and design a common CAS for poverty alleviation?

⇒ How should assessment and evaluation be designed by different co-operation

agencies?

⇒ If the GOB can be persuaded to design a holistic poverty alleviation strategy, will
donors be agreeable to subordinate their CAS to that strategy and to have their
programmes coordinated by the GOB?

⇒ What should be the role of civil society in Bangladesh in the design and
implementation of such a strategy? How can a political consensus be built around an
agreed national strategy for poverty reduction?

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Annex - I
List of Consulted CAS’, Policy Papers and Focus Studies
Sl. Agency and Country Type Prepared by Time of Implementation
No. Preparation Period

A. COUNTRY ASSISTANCE STRATEGY

1. Department for International CSP DFID Staff based on Nov. 1998 1999-2002
Development (DFID), UK inputs from consultants
and consultations
2. Swiss Development Cooperation CP SDC staff plus May, 1993 – 1995-2002
(SDC), Sweden workshops and local May, 1994
talks
3. World Bank (WB) CAS WB Staff Mar 6, 1998 1998-2001
4. United Nations Development CCA UN Staff College, Nov. 1998 –
Group (UNDG) UNICEF, WFP, FAO, Sep. 1999
UNFPA and UNDP
5. European Commission (EC) CS EC/Bangladesh 1999-2001
6. UNICEF CN UNICEF Board Nov. 12, 1999 2000-2005
7. World Food Programme (WFP) CSO WFP Mar. 5, 2000 2001 – 2005

GLOBAL POVERTY STRATEGY

Sl. Agency Title Prepared by Time of Implementation
No. Preparation Period
1. OECD DAC Guidelines on Poverty DAC Informal March 2000
Network on
Poverty
Reduction
2 SIDA Sida’s Poverty Programme Dept. for Policy Dec. 1996
and Legal
Services
3. UNFPA Guidelines on Poverty and other UNFPA
Related Issues
4. JICA JICA’s Development Assistance Ministry of
on Poverty Eradication Foreign Affairs
5. UNDP UNDP Poverty Report 2000
6. WFP Enabling Development May 1999
7. SDC Policy for Social development Nov. 1999
8. SDC Guiding Principles 1999

B. BANGLADESH – SPECIFIC POLICY ON POVERTY REDUCTION

Sl. Agency Title Prepared by Time of Implementation
No. Preparation Period
1. CIDA Policy on Poverty Reduction CIDA Jan. 1996
2. SDC SDC and Bangladesh SDC Dec 1997
3. SDC SDC-Policy for Social
Development

POVERTY-FOCUSED PAPERS/STUDIES
Sl. Agency Title Type Prepared by Time of
No. Preparation
1 WB Bangladesh: From Counting the Focus WB staff 1999
Poor to Making the Poor study
2. NORAD Policies and Strategies for Poverty Evaluation Chr. Michelson 1999
Reduction in Norwegian Institute
Development Aid
3. DFID Economic Well-being TSP DFID Dec. 1999
4. DFID Poverty Issues in Bangladesh Review consultants May 1998
Note: CSP = Country Strategy Paper CP = Country Programme CCA = Country Common Assessment
CS = Co-operation Strategy CN = Country Note CSO = Country Strategy Outlines TSP = Target Strategy Paper

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